I was out on my first agency gig yesterday wich was good but…
I was doubled up with another driver and while driving was being told to do 56 on a 50 single lane road - the limit for hgvs was increased from the national 40 to 50 to make the road a bit faster, because everyone does and to stop slowing down on overtaking sections to let faster lorries overtake.
As far as I’m concerned it’s my license and I’ll do the speed limit. If he wants to risk his licence that’s his problem.
Should I ignore the companies fulltime employed drivers and carry on doing the speed limit and being curtious to other faster lorries or just as I kept being told [zb] it and do what everyone else does?
I was out on my first agency gig yesterday wich was good but…
I was doubled up with another driver and while driving was being told to do 56 on a 50 single lane road - the limit for hgvs was increased from the national 40 to 50 to make the road a bit faster, because everyone does and to stop slowing down on overtaking sections to let faster lorries overtake.
As far as I’m concerned it’s my license and I’ll do the speed limit. If he wants to risk his licence that’s his problem.
Should I ignore the companies fulltime employed drivers and carry on doing the speed limit and being curtious to other faster lorries or just as I kept being told [zb] it and do what everyone else does?
Like you said it’s your licence and your foot on the pedal!
It’s clear that you know the answer already! Stick to your guns. And just because it’s a 50 limit doesn’t automatically mean it’s safe to do 50 - - let alone 56.
It’s a limit
Not a TARGET
I’ve started plodding at 51 on the motorway. Motors are screwed down to 53 so the times are negligible and the fuel savings gone up.
I kind of had a similar experience except on two occasions the senior drivers were smoking in the cab…be it window open…felt could not say much as was spending over 12 hours with em and trying to do my best to learn the ropes…
To the OP and Boltonboy, look, it really is this simple; the law is the law and it’s up to you if you want to break it or not. I’m not going to castigate someone for being on the limiter on a single carriageway, there are plenty of times where that is perfectly safe. Likewise if a senior driver fancies having a puff in the cab, great, go nuts if they want to, it’s their choice, their lungs, their license.
But they absolutely should not be encouraging you to be speeding or forcing you to breathe their second hand smoke…
Equally, you have to have the courage of your own convictions to bloody well speak up. If you let them smoke next to you without saying something, you can’t expect them to stop can you?? They clearly do it habitually, so just because they are teaching you for the day is unlikely to register as a problem even with them. With regard to being told to drive faster than the limit, you just say “you might speed along here, but I’m not comfortable doing so” the end.
nick2008:
It’s a limit
Not a TARGET
I’ve started plodding at 51 on the motorway. Motors are screwed down to 53 so the times are negligible and the fuel savings gone up.
Really? If they told you to jump of a cliff would you do it? No, man up and tell them to do one. It’s you who could be gripping the rail if it all goes wrong.
nick2008:
It’s a limit
Not a TARGET
I’ve started plodding at 51 on the motorway. Motors are screwed down to 53 so the times are negligible and the fuel savings gone up.
Have you got rich on the fuel bonus yet ■■
Plenty of times I drive at 56, or 54 according to the Sat-Nav, And I believe the Sat-Nav more!
So my thinking is that I’m well under 10% + 2, and the only speed camera’s I therefore care about are on downhill sections. Along with Overspeeds! But there is a time and a place for leadfooting it, and that’s down to you pal and YOUR judgement!
If it’s the same geezer smoking and telling you to speed, just pull in at the first layby to let him outside to smoke his cigarette when he lights up, if he fails to exit the cab remove the keys and exit it yourself leaving the drivers door window and preferably the whole door open, give it ten minutes after he’s finished for the air to clear, DO NOT put your tacho on break or POA during this time.
What’s he going to say about you when you get back? any argy bargy back at the depot just tell them the truth what happened.
Some people are pig ignorant, they were raised this way and there is nothing that will raise their knuckles from the floor until the day they die (early), but there are ways to beat them at their own game.
When I first got my licence I did some agency work driving a 7.5T for AGA Rangemaster, double manned job and I really enjoyed it. A couple of times I got put with one driver who was fine all day but when I was driving back after the last drop he just used to change. He told me to do 40mph in a 30mph zone and said the sat nav would let me know if there was any speed cameras. I drove at 30mph and told him it would’nt pick up mobile vans.
This happened a couple of days so when we got back to the yard and were out of the cab I just told him straight. I’m very quiet but if I loose my temper you’ll know about it. I later found out another full time employed driver refused to work with this guy and he was’nt very well liked by anybody
Juddian:
If it’s the same geezer smoking and telling you to speed, just pull in at the first layby to let him outside to smoke his cigarette when he lights up, if he fails to exit the cab remove the keys and exit it yourself leaving the drivers door window and preferably the whole door open, give it ten minutes after he’s finished for the air to clear, DO NOT put your tacho on break or POA during this time.
What’s he going to say about you when you get back? any argy bargy back at the depot just tell them the truth what happened.
Some people are pig ignorant, they were raised this way and there is nothing that will raise their knuckles from the floor until the day they die (early), but there are ways to beat them at their own game.
Even as a smoker myself, I agree with the clown…
A smoker has no right to potentially affect the health of another in a work environment, and the rules on smoking are very clear. Annoyingly I can’t even do it alone in the truck, but that just means I can blink, stretch my legs and clean my mirrors hourly!
nick2008:
It’s a limit
Not a TARGET
I’ve started plodding at 51 on the motorway. Motors are screwed down to 53 so the times are negligible and the fuel savings gone up.
Have you got rich on the fuel bonus yet ■■
Plenty of times I drive at 56, or 54 according to the Sat-Nav, And I believe the Sat-Nav more!
So my thinking is that I’m well under 10% + 2, and the only speed camera’s I therefore care about are on downhill sections. Along with Overspeeds! But there is a time and a place for leadfooting it, and that’s down to you pal and YOUR judgement!
Question: why dont trucks have ‘limiters’ that stick to the set speeds up and down hills. My last trek was rather bothersome.
dd.
But there is a time and a place for leadfooting it, and that’s down to you pal and YOUR judgement! 
